Govt sets up routes for motor homes

Tourism authorities in the Yangtze River Delta have designed five tour routes for motor home drivers as part of an effort to spur development of the nascent recreational vehicle industry, local media reported Saturday.

The routes provide motor home drivers with a guide to the major tourist sites in the region, as well as some of the trailer parks where they can park their vehicles for the night.

Most of the tourist spots on the routes are in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces, as well as Shanghai, according to a report in Oriental Morning Post. One route runs along the East China Sea from Lianyungang in northeastern Jiangsu Province to Wenzhou in southeastern Zhejiang Province.

The provincial and municipal tourism bureaus in the region are planning to build up the infrastructure along the routes to support the use of the vehicles, which usually have their own bathrooms, kitchens and sleeping quarters.

By 2020, the governments in the four regions plan to build 400 to 500 such trailer parks, where drivers can fill up on gasoline and water, dump their waste and plug into the power grid to recharge their batteries.

Some high-class parks also offer recreational facilities. There are currently plans to build 14 such camps in Shanghai, including one at the Shanghai Sheshan National Tourist Resort in Songjiang district.

There are 8,500 motor homes in China, said a manager surnamed Jing with the Shanghai Zhongtianxing Motor Home Club.

Still, the Shanghai Municipal Tourism Bureau estimated that the number of tourists traveling via motor home will reach 3 million to 5.5 million by 2020 in the Yangtze River Delta.

"The popularity of private cars has laid the groundwork for motor homes," said Gu Xiaoming, a professor in the Tourism Management Department of Fudan University.

The vehicles will most appeal to young people with a healthy sense of adventure, Gu said.

"The motor home is not just a means of travel, it is a lifestyle," Jing told the Global Times. "Residents have not yet warmed up to motor homes. The best way to promote the industry is to encourage them to embrace this new lifestyle."

Most of the motor homes in China are owned by companies that rent them to tourists. They cost about 1,500 yuan ($240) a day, Jin said.

Still, the industry faces challenges from incomplete or disadvantageous regulations.

For example, residents only need a regular C-class driver's license to drive motor homes that seat fewer than seven people, Jing said. However, to drive a larger vehicle legally, a driver will have to obtain the same kind of license that a city bus driver has.